Mordechai Limon

Mordechai Limon was born in 1924 in Baranavichy

Mordechai Limon was born in 1924 in Baranavichy, then in Poland. He moved to Mandatory Palestine with his family in 1932 and grew up in Tel Aviv. He joined the Hashomer Hatzair youth movement and later the sea unit of Hapoel, where he took a boat commanders course in 1939.

During World War II he joined the Palmach and its naval unit, later the Palyam. He then sailed with the British merchant fleet, including Arctic convoys to the Soviet Union and voyages in the Pacific and the Far East. After the war he commanded 3 ships that brought Jewish immigrants to Mandatory Palestine in 1947.

In the 1948 war he was second in command of INS Haganah and was wounded in an Egyptian air attack in October 1948. After recovering he took command of INS Wedgwood and later headed the navy's operations department. On December 14, 1950, he was appointed commander of the Israeli Navy and served until 1954.

Later he headed the Defense Ministry mission in Paris. He oversaw the Cherbourg Project, in which 5 missile boats embargoed by France were taken to Israel, and he was then expelled from France. He died in 2009.